Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

JLI Retreat 2023: Why isn’t Jerusalem mentioned in the Torah? Rabbi Dovid Eliezre

Sunday, August 13th, 2023

Why isn’t Jerusalem mentioned in the Torah? Rabbi Dovid Eliezre

Jerusalem is alluded to throughout the Torah but not mentioned by name. A land mass is described that could only be Jerusalem. The Torah kept the actual name secret to prevent everyone including non-Jews from wanting to flock there in droves. Only a few hundred people lived in Jerusalem in the 1920s. Jews have been there for over 3,000 years. We should create our own Jerusalem by praying wherever we are and facing Jerusalem.

JLI Retreat 2023: What’s on your bucket list? Rabbi Moshe Bryski

Saturday, August 12th, 2023

What’s on your bucket list? Rabbi Moshe Bryski

The story of 1,090 people who ignored the famous violinist. Where were they going? Why were they rushing? Why do they need to do those things? 

Is everything we do preparation for something else?

Sam Walton built Walmart, the greatest company in the world but didn’t have time for his family. On his deathbed, he said, “I blew it. Looking back, I blew it. I blew life.” 

“I intend to live forever, and so far, so good.” — Steven Wright 

“My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying.” — Rodney Dangerfield

If all we do is rush from one thing to another, it becomes very difficult to imagine any existence beyond the physical. 

How do you know you have a soul? “I don’t have a soul. I am a soul. I have a body. My soul is who I am. My body is housing the soul in this iteration of existence.” — Rabbi Avrohom Twersky 

Souls don’t die. We will know more about this when we get there. For now, make every day count. 

Death closes the curtain on our free will and ability to do good deeds. 

Compile our own bucket list, but change the term. Call it a life list, things we want to accomplish in life. Put the exotic stuff aside, unless it is truly a part of you.

Establish a weekly ritual to call your parents once a week. Read the 5 books of Moses, then the Prophets. Go to shul at least once per month, or more. Pick one year to experience every Jewish holiday. Put on Tefillin more often. Mentor someone. Make a difference in another human being’s life. Make a Jewish shidduch. Visit lonely seniors. 

Make your goals have lasting and enduring value. Acts of goodness and kindness. Answer the questions to the “why” of life. 

Never miss an opportunity to attend a family simcha.  As long as we pass on traditions to our children, Judaism will continue to thrive. That should be our legacy. Judaism is not just a religion. Judaism is the hope, guarantee and promise for the Jewish people and all of humanity. 

JLI Retreat 2023: Great debates in Judaism in medicine with Rabbi Edward Reichman MD

Saturday, August 12th, 2023

Great debates in Judaism in medicine with Rabbi Edward Reichman MD

Abortion:

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein: Abortion is akin to homicide. Not equivalent, but akin. It’s the taking of a life. The only permitted abortion is if the mother’s life is at risk. Tay-Sachs is not a justification for abortion.  Even an amniocentesis is not permitted since it could lead to an abortion. Catholicism takes the opposite view, that the mother must be sacrificed to save the fetus. 

Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg believes abortion is not akin to homicide. It can be performed to save the health of the mother, including mental health issues. Aborions up to 7th month are permitted. Theoretically postpartum depression could be a mental health issue, but now there is treatment for postpartum depression. Therefore a rabbi would be less likely to permit an abortion for that.

Donor artificial insemination: How to procure reproductive seed.

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein: A married woman who goes to a sperm bank because her husband is infertile is not an adulteress. The child is not a momser. This is because there is no physical illicit relationship between the woman and the donor. The donor is the Halachic father. If the donor is a Kohan, the child is a Kohan.

Nevertheless, Jewish law prohibits being a sperm donor. New issues crop up with sperm donors. What if stem cells are taken from the sperm? This has not been adjudicated yet.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe said that a person should be willing to give up everything including his own life to have children.

There is no US legislation limiting the number of children produced by one sperm donor. The serious risk is siblings marrying each other. 

If a Jewish woman has a child with a non-Jewish man, the child is Jewish but the child has no Halachic father. The child has a genetic father, not a Halachic one. With no Halachic father, it is impossible to marry a paternal sibling. 

There are 60 cases being prosecuted for reproductive specialists providing their own sperm.

3 Day Burial Controversy: Way back when, doctors would misdiagnose your time of death, which affected the entire Western world for burial purposes. “Saved by the bell” is people who would ring a bell when they were buried underground when they were still alive. People who died had to be kept above ground for a few days until it was 100% proven that death had occurred. This conflicts with Jewish law, which demands immediate burial. In israel, burial must occur within 24 hours. There is a clear prohibition on delaying burial. 

Yet modern technology has ethicists and others arguing when death occurs. Nevertheless, technology also allows the exact time of death to be precisely pinpointed. 

Superstition is part of Christian tradition, not Jewish tradition.

A new physiological definition of death: The invention of the respirator allowed for people to artificially be give oxygen. This meant the stopping of the brain diverged from the stopping of the heart. In the 1950s, a new condition called brain death occurred but cardiac death did not. Legal brain death allowed other organs to be transplanted because those organs were properly functioning. 

If you misdiagnose someone as dead when they are not legally dead, and your misdiagnosis causes death, you have Halachically committed homicide. 

JLI Retreat 2023: Crossfire with Rabbis Manis Friedman, Yosef Schusterman, YY Schochet

Friday, August 11th, 2023

Crossfire with Rabbis Manis Friedman, Yosef Schusterman, YY Schochet

Hating Israel is the new form of hating Jews. Do not accept the narrative of the NYT and CNN.

You can never have too many Sefer Torahs since everything comes from the Torah.

Successful marriage: Never ask why. Woman must be able to trust her husband, the man is the giver who must feel he is bringing something to the marriage. You can’t fool mother nature. 

Doctors tell the rabbis what the medical situation is, then the rabbis consult the Torah to see what is medically permissible. 

God has no grandchildren. Every child is his, irrespective of the child’s relationship with the parent. 

The concept of a Minyan is biblical. 10 men is mandatory. 

Friedman: Prayer can be done by praying on the meaning of the words (Kavanah), or just by the words themselves. Those words are holy themselves.

Shochet: AI: The Jewish perspective is to buy the stocks. ChatGPT can’t give you a hug, show sensitivity, or work on Shabbos. Rabbis are can. 

Schusterman: Humility doesn’t mean going around thinking I’m a nobody. That’s idiotic. Humility is knowing myself, but recognizing everything I have is God-given. Humility is about being better.

Friedman: A man’s wife takes priority before the children and his parents. 

Schusterman: God doesn’t kill or steal. God takes people back because their mission was accomplished. He’s not killing them. Purpose of creation is to advance to the next level. Plant to become animal, animal to become human, human to reach higher. God doesn’t steal because everything is his anyway.

Shochet: You are allowed to destroy if it’s for later reconstruction. That’s how we know God will eventually build the 3rd Beis Hamikdash.

Shochet: The rest of the world will respect Jews who know how to respect themselves.

Friedman: We don’t discuss transgender with our children. We discuss gender. Transgender is for people suffering from dysphoria. It is inappropriate to discuss at the dinner table. To make it a national conversation is really bad.

Schusterman: Righteous non-Jews have a share in the world to come, whether it is a Jewish or non-Jew0sh world to come. Non-Jews should keep the 7 Noahyde laws. Those laws are to civilize the world. You can’t function in a jungle. Jews are to take the civilized world and bring Godliness into the world through Torah and Mitzvahs. We have a different mission from non-Jews, but in both cases our job is to complete our mission.

Friedman: Affection is meant to be personal and intimate and should only happen in private. 

Friedman: No middle ground on transgenderism. You can’t reason with desperation. His program used to make teenage girls to be proud Jews. Now we teach them first to be proud girls. 

Schusterman: If children say they are transgender, something is wrong. You can’t let children do whatever they want and then wonder what happened. Raise healthy children.

What were they thinking? with Rabbi Chaim Block, Chabad South Texas

Moses rarely got angry, but every time he did, there were negative consequences. Nothing good ever comes from anger. 

God gives us opportunities to fail. That doesn’t mean we have to fail. Our obligation is to do our very best to do the right thing. 

The snake is in every one of us. It’s our Yatza Hora. 

JLI Retreat 2023: What the Torah demands of science

Friday, August 11th, 2023

What the Torah demands of science

The Torah is not in conflict with science. 

The people who pray the best are people who have jobs. To appreciate that God created the entire world, you have to experience this outside world, from business to medicine to other forms of employment. 

Torah and science usually agree, but sometimes Torah and science disagree. 

Talmudic scholars were not scientists. 

People claim the Torah is non-literal when the literal interpretation makes people uncomfortable. If anything, that makes the Torah itself more likely to be literal. 

Some twist the Torah. Others twist the science. Others smash the whole science-Torah debate with Kabbalah. 

Torah is the blueprint of the world, which is described by science. Science is evidence. Torah is truth.

Ignore the bumper stickers that say “trust science.” No scientist trusts science. Trusting evidence is fine, but rarely is hard evidence offered. Statistics does not offer 100% proof. 

Math has proofs. Science has a preponderance of evidence and reducing the probability of error to near 0.

There is no uncertainty in the Torah. What it says, is. 100% accuracy. Science is collecting evidence. God is a definitive answer. Evidence is only useful if you don’t already know the answer. When evidence contradicts a fundamental principle, throw out the evidence. Jews have a fundamental principle called the Torah.

Science cannot contradict Torah. When it does, the science is wrong. 

Authentic Judaism never compartmentalizes. It does not separate science at work and religion at home. It does not kowtow to nature. 

God is supernatural. We are not bound by nature. God can break the rules and mess with the scientific evidence. God split the sea. 

Theory is less important than practice. Do mitzvahs.

JLI Retreat 2023: From Sinai to Cyberspace with Rabbi Yosef Shusterman, Chabad North Beverly Hills

Thursday, August 10th, 2023

From Sinai to Cyberspace with Rabbi Yosef Shusterman, Chabad North Beverly Hills

The Torah is absolute truth. So the Torah does apply to events today even though it was written thousands of years ago.

God gave Moses generalizations, general rules.                                                                                                                  

Rabbis don’t always answer the question. They answer the person asking the question. 

Torah says you cannot have  minyan or do a Megillah Reading through Zoom. Yet there is a law in the Talmud that says a Shofar cannot be blown in a pit because it creates an echo. You have to hear the original voice, not the echo. So even though the Talmud has no idea what Zoom is, the law still applies.

Abortion and heart transplants?

Torah talks about when life begins and ends. Life begins at conception. Abortion is allowed to save the life of the mother. 

Heart transplants? When does life end? Is it brain death or respiratory death? If respiratory death, then the transplant would be impermissible. If the brain death is the criteria, then the transplant would be allowed since the heart is being removed from a dead person. 

You cannot take a prayerbook into the bathroom, but you can take your cellphone there. 

Surrogate motherhood: If Sarah gives the egg but Rebecca carries the baby, who is the mother? 

Laws of inheritance matter. Who would you say Shiva for? Does Shomer Nagiyah apply? What if the donor mother is Jewish and the carrier of the baby is not Jewish? Or vice versa. 

In general, if either woman is not Jewish, Judaism prefers they convert to Judaism. 

Life does begin at conception, but there are various stages of Halachic life. The true viability of a baby is 30 days after birth. 

JLI Retreat 2023: Prophecy for Beginners with Rabbi Pinchas Taylor

Thursday, August 10th, 2023

JLI Retreat 2023

Prophecy for Beginners with Rabbi Pinchas Taylor

Prophecy is a core belief in Judaism

Prophet: Someone who receives messages from God to transmit to the people. One of 13 pillars of Judaism.

Prophets make corrections in the direction in which Jewish society is moving.

A prophet cannot change any law. The Torah is the law. Only false prophets go against the Torah.

Prophets must be wise, lucid, impeccable character, in full control of one’s evil inclination, always calm and joyous, shun materiality, devoting entire life to serving God. 

God decides who gets to spread his prophecy. 

Prophecies must be specific and unpredictable.

Negative prophecies that don’t come to fruition do not invalidate the prophet. It’s possible the people heeded the prophet’s warning and altered their behavior positively to ward off the catastrophe. 

Israel is a prophecy. Smallest of nations. Hated by others. We were exiled but became an eternal nation. 

Prophecy ended 2300 years ago when the desire for idolatry decreased. This was when the Second Temple was destroyed. 

Our big prophecy is Moshiach. Miracles do not make a prophet. Miracles do not bring Moshiach. 

JC was not a prophet. He did not restore the temple, gather the exiles, or bring about world peace. 

Moshiach must be descendant from King David. JC has no genealogy. JC existed after prophecy ended. JC broke several commandments, including violating Shabbos.

Nostradamus was not a prophet. His predictions were all vaguely worded. He shoots the arrow at the tree and then draws the bullseye around it after. 

False prophecies include Y2K and the Mayan calendar End of Days prediction. 

No, the Simpsons are not prophets. Confirmation bias.    Cherry-picked data.                

Chabad’s Secret Sauce Revealed

Monday, July 31st, 2023

Chabad’s Secret Sauce Revealed

 

Many factors, exacerbated by a global pandemic, have led to declining religious participation. Catholic and Protestant churches have lost congregants. Judaism seems to constantly be one existential crisis away from total extinction. Synagogues closed during COVID, and have yet to reopen.

 

Straddled between Reform and Orthodox, Conservative Judaism was squeezed from both sides. Many Conservative synagogues closed. American Jewish University, once a leading producer of Conservative rabbis, all but collapsed. They are desperately seeking a buyer for their idle Bel Air campus in a troublesome commercial real estate market.

 

Reform Judaism is suffering but surviving. Top Reform synagogues maintain an abundance of wealthy donors. Additionally, Reform Jews comprise a majority of overall Jews. Helping matters is an influx of congregants from Conservative synagogues uncomfortable with the strictness of Orthodox shuls. These congregants are a one-time solution salve, not an elixir.

 

While various religious denominations and sects shrink, Orthodox Judaism has bucked the trend. Chabad in particular is experiencing rapid growth expansion. As other synagogues close up shop, contract or merge to survive, Chabad houses are springing up globally. This is not a value judgment of which sect is best, just a cold numbers-based analysis.

 

Ironically, Chabad’s secret sauce is not secret at all. Unlike Coca-Cola’s formula, Chabad’s mixture of ingredients is readily available for copying. Chabad gets two very big things right.

 

First, Chabad creates a welcoming environment for every Jew. The Lubavitcher Rebbe wanted Chabad houses to welcome all Jews regardless of age, religiosity level, or personal politics. Cancel culture is non-existent.

 

Many Reform synagogues have become Democrat Party headquarters with bagels. Sermons that alienate Republicans are commonplace. Political liberalism is practically mandatory.

 

Orthodox Jews embrace traditional values and generally vote as Christian evangelicals do. My private conversations with Chabad rabbis from all 50 states had over 90% of them conceding that they vote Republican. Yet most Chabad rabbis refuse to allow politics into their shuls. They are truly inclusive. Politically liberal Jews are welcome. Campus Chabad rabbis in particular keep their political conservatism quiet to avoid antagonizing the many liberal students attending their services.

 

Chabad’s second key element is a brilliant balancing act. While open to all Jews, Chabad rejects liberalization of standards, rituals or traditions. There is zero compromise on doctrine. Chabad refuses to water down traditions to augment membership. Quite the opposite, the Torah is the standard. Chabad will not judge people’s conduct in their own homes. They will promote proper conduct in the Rebbe’s houses.

 

This combination of a loving outstretched hand with a traditional, absolutist religious

philosophy works. People know that a Chabad house provides an authentic traditional Jewish experience in a relaxed loving environment. Chabad will not perform gay marriages or interfaith marriages but will absolutely welcome gay Jews and interfaith couples to attend Chabad functions. Doctrine is absolute, but everyone is loved without judgment.

 

This approach proved decisive during COVID. Pajama-clad non-Orthodox congregants were able to observe services from their own bedrooms. Returning to physical temples became inconvenient. Conversely, Chabad houses reopened early in the pandemic and refused to close again. They understood that the survival of entities we call communities were at stake. With Zoom Shabbat services prohibited, Orthodoxy required in-person attendance. The mourner’s kaddish for a deceased parent requires 10 men. Friday night Shabbos dinners require at least three men to do post-meal benching rituals. A possible quick COVID death was not an excuse to allow a slow, painful death from individual isolation and community breakdown. Chabad’s outstretched hand offered Jews a place to meet, eat, pray and socialize together. Clearly delineated rules applied to attendees equally.

 

Raise standards and people will meet them. Treat everyone with a loving welcome and they will keep returning. Attendees may initially come for delicious food and abundant alcohol. They often stay long-term for the beautiful environment. They then may try replicating this in their own homes.

 

To survive and thrive, non-Orthodox denominations would benefit from copying Chabad’s successful two-pronged approach. Strengthening all Jewish sects benefits Jews of all stripes.

247 fun reasons to love America

Tuesday, July 4th, 2023

247 fun reasons to love America

1980 Olympic Gold Medal Hockey Team

1980s hard rock hair metal

2 Live Crew’s Banned in the USA

7-Eleven Big Gulps and Slurpees

ACDC’s You shook me, Thunderstruck, Moneytalks

Adam Sandler

Aerosmith

Airheads band The Lone Rangers

Al D’Amato’s singing

Alf

America the Beautiful sung by Ray Charles

American soldiers and veterans

Animaniacs

Anthony Clark

Bad Touch’s Discovery Channel

Batman: The Dark Knight

BB King and Lucille

Belker on Hill Street Blues

Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia

Biff Henderson

Bill Cosby, Himself video

Bill Murray’s Quick Change

Bill of Rights

Bill the Cat

Billiards

Blue Collar Comedy Tour

Blue Bloods

_____________

Bluegrass Junction

Bounce houses

Bouncing 25 cent rubber balls

Boxing promoter Don King

Brooklyn

Bubblebaths for two

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck

Burgertime

Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise movies

Caddyshack

Capitalism

Capture the flag

Cards Against Humanity

Chabad Houses

Charitable people

Cheerleaders

Cheers’s Sam Mayday Malone and Norm Peterson

Cherry Lime Rickeys

Chocolate covered cherries

Chris Berman

Chris Gardner’s The Pursuit of Happyness

Chris Noth’s Mike Logan

Chris Tucker singing Barry White

Coca-Cola

Coed touch football

Colorwar

Commando and pantsless Wednesdays (until HR intervened)

Conan O’Brien’s In the Year 2000

Corn Fritters

Cosmic Bowling

County Fairs

Dale Intimidator Earnhardt’s 1998 Daytona 500

Dana Carvey

Dann Florek’s Captain Donald Cragen

David Letterman’s Top Ten Lists

Dazed and Confused — Mitch Kramer

 

Dennis Farina

Desperate Housewives

Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo

Die Hard

DirecTV NFL Package

Dog-riding monkey

Donald Trump–from the Apprentice to the White House to Twitter

Doritos

Dr. Brown’s Black Cherry Soda

Dr. Charles Krauthammer

Duck Dynasty

Ebay

Edible underthings

Entrepreneurship

ESPN

Eye of the tiger

Fireworks

Flavored massage oil

Founding Fathers

Fox News

Fraggle Rock

Freedom, liberty, right of dissent

Gaga (dodgeball using closed fist and cherry ball)

Game nights

Garlic knots

Gatorade dumping on coaches

George W. Bush picks up bullhorn

Glow sticks as fake cigars

Golden Corral

GPS trackers

Greg the Bunny


Greg Gutfeld

Hamburgers

Happy face emoticons

Harmonicas

Hawaii

Henny Youngman

Hot Chocolate’s You sexy thing (I believe in miracles)

Hot scantily clad women

Howard Stern

I once finger-(blanked) a hermit crab (whoever said that)

In n Out Burger

Independence Day BBQs

Instant messaging

Internet dating

Iphones

Italian ices

J. Geils Band’s Centerfold

Jack Nicholson’s Colonel Nathan R. Jessup

Jacuzzi romps

Jell-O

Jell-O wrestling

Jerry Orbach’s Lenny Briscoe

Jerry Reed’s Eastbound and Down

Jim Carrey’s Ace Ventura, Pet Detective

John Cougar Mellencamp’s Pink Houses and Hurts so good

John Facenda’s The Autumn Wind

John McEnroe’s tennis tantrums

Judaism celebrated in peace

Justice Clarence Thomas

Justice Scalia’s scathing dissents

Karl Rove’s whiteboard

Kazoos

KFC Popcorn Chicken

Kickball

Kim Kardashian’s bare bottom

King of the Hill

Kool-Aid

Kosher imitation bacon and crab

Krispy Kreme Donut Hamburgers

Laff-Olympics

Larry Hagman’s J.R. Ewing on Dallas

Las Vegas

Lee Greenwood’s God bless the USA and Bandit Express

Lilo and Stitch — Ohana means family––––––––––––––

Louie Armstrong’s It’s a Wonderful World—————————————-

Louisiana Cajun Cooking (Especially with Justin Wilson)

Lucky Charms

Madden Football

Magnum, P.I.

Mardi Gras, New Orleans

Mark Levin’s rants

Married with Children’s Al Bundy

Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing and Let’s get it on

Mascots

McDonalds

Meat and potatoes

Michael J. Fox’s Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties

Mills Lane yelling Let’s get it on

Miniature golf

Monopoly

Morris Day and the Time’s Jerk Out

Mountain Dew Code Red

MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch

Murder, She Wrote

Nathan’s Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest

National Federation of Republican Women

National Football League

Neocons

New Years Eve noisemakers

New York Post front and back page

New York Stock Exchange opening and closing bells

NFL Films

NFL Network

Oakland Raiders

Old School with Will Ferrell & Vince Vaughn & Godfather Luke Wilson

Overtime playoff hockey

Pajama parties

Peaceful transition of political power

Phil Hartman

Pizza

Political Conventions

Pool volleyball

Pringles

Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio

Q-Bert

Queen’s I want it all

Raider Nation

Rainbow Sherbert

Redeye with Greg Gutfeld

Republican Jewish Brunettes

Republican Party Animals

Riptide

Robin Williams

Ronald Reagan’s self-deprecating jokes 

Rudy Giuliani’s New York toughness

Run DMC

Rush Limbaugh

San Diego Wild Animal Park

Satellite TV

Save a horse, ride a cowboy

Scrabble

Sean Hannity’s Freedom Concerts

Seinfeld

Sexting

Sherman Hemsley’s George Jefferson

Sizzler

Sky high skyscrapers

Skype

Slim Jims

Snoopy’s Joe Cool

Snow football

Social networks for building businesses

South Beach, Miami Spring Break

South Park

Spiderman

Sportsbars

Stock trading

Stratego

Strip chess

Stuart Scott

Sudoku

Summer camp

Super Soakers

Supply-side tax cuts

T-shirt originals

Taco Bell

Talk radio

Thanksgiving with John Madden

The Color of Money

The Counter Build Your Own Burger

The Expendables

The Frat Pack

The Honeymooners

The Muppets

The Onion

Tim McGraw’s Indian Outlaw ——————————————————

Tivo

Toby Keith’s Courtesy of the Red White and Blue

Train rides

Trampoline Dodgeball

Tygrrrr Express

USA Cartoon Express

Video Arcade Games

We’re not France

Weekend at Bernie’s

Western medicine

Whitesnake’s Here I go again video

Wifi on planes

XM Sirius Satellite Radio

Yoo-Hoo

Young Jewish Conservatives

Yummy bouncies and badonkadonks

ZZ Top’s Sleeping Bag and Sharp Dressed Man

On 2023 Independence Day, the American Dream is alive and well

Monday, July 3rd, 2023

On 2023 Independence Day, the American Dream is alive and well

Why I Love America